Do You Know Wyoming’s State Gemstone?

I'm usually seen in apple-green, and just like Wyoming I'm tough, yet serene.

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On Jan. 26, 1967, the Wyoming Legislature formally adopted nephrite jade as the state's national gemstone.

Often called "Wyoming jade," this stone's moderate hardness and great durability make it easy to saw and carve into figures or jewelry.

The Wyoming State Geological Survey (WSGS) says the earliest accounts of jade in the Cowboy State are anectodally reported to have been found before 1900. According to Lawrence J. Bergsten, the cowboys sold it for whatever they could get.

In the 1947 book "Adventure in Jade," James L. Kraft told two stories he heard from local nephrite hunters. The first was that the president of the Kraft Foods Company in Chicago, Illinois was a jade enthusiast and early purchaser of the gem in Wyoming circa 1938 or '39 and helped open one of the first jade shops in Lander.

The other story tells of a sheepherder working in the Crooks Mountains in 1931 who found a large green rock that was found to be jade. He sold it to a museum. This story caused others to hunt for the rock as well.

Wyoming State Geological Survey

The Wyoming Jade Rush began in the 1930's -- took a brief nosedive during World War II, but picked back up again in the mid-1940's.

"Alan Branham in 1944 noted that when a large piece of jade was found, someone had to stay in the field to guard it until their partner returned from retrieving a wrecking car in Lander. Since no one had a large enough saw to cut it, the piece generally ended up staying in the backyard of the founder. Large jade boulder finds filtered down through the local grapevine and generally precipitated another influx of jade hunters to the jade fields" states the WSGS.

The jade-craze in Wyoming seemed to sizzle off after the 1970's, but made a little comeback in 2005. Today, one of the best places to see these wondrous, absinthe-colored stones are around Jeffrey City in the jade fields of the Big Horn and Basin Wind River mining district. Also, at the Sage Creek basin near the small town of Lysite.

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October 2023

Gallery Credit: Kolby Fedore, Townsquare Media

Casper College Geoscience Club, Natural Science Fair

Gallery Credit: Kolby Fedore, Townsquare Media

Wyoming Mountaineers of Casper College Archival Collection

This collection was found unprocessed but was pieced together in stages over the course of a year, starting with the scrapbook and photo albums created by the WMCC. These items were found first and so were arranged and described at the collection level, and then as processing continued, the climbing vest and pitons were found, followed by various documents and articles written and published on the Mountaineers, all of which brought the collection together.

Highlights of the collection are the artifacts and documentation of the First Graduation Climb on Devils Tower in 1955, the 1956 Rappel off the side of the Casper Gladstone Hotel, and the climbs during the 50th Anniversary of Devils Tower. Documentation on the latter includes a feature in LIFE Magazine.

Gallery Credit: Wyoming Mountaineers of Casper College Collection, CCA 11.vi.1989.01. Casper College Archives and Special Collections.